Pat Shingleton: Charting the Course

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Without charts, the only means to determine an explorer's location was celestial navigation. The captain's chart was little more than the ship's log. On old maps, a circular directional emblem is a "wind rose." Mariner's in Homer's time identified direction with wind as early cartographers were part artist, astronomer; combining wind direction into the "wind rose." When nautical charts were introduced in the 14th century, four primary winds were schematically positioned around a circle, representing the horizon. Always present was the "wind-rose," containing a radial set of points, such as a star, directed into each wind position. The thumb lines radiated from the central point of the rose, connected to each directional point. More tomorrow.